Saturday, April 19, 2014

Thunder & Lightning Air Show Tucson

Welcome back readers! I have so many posts, new features, and pictures waiting to go on this new page. Thank you all for being so patient with me. And thank you to everyone that enjoys and shares this page. I have been to a lot of air shows through the years, but none compared to how great this one was! On this day not only was it enough of an under taking and joy of course, to bring along all three of our kiddos --our daughter brought along a friend of hers. We left the house to mommy and the dogs, so that she could enjoy herself alone. Free time is very rare in our house. Each of the kids had there own camera --to take in the action. And after viewing the film--I have to say they are very random--but have you seen my pictures, so am I. I have to also say that they have a great eye! Many of the pictures were better than what I am showing here today. Maybe soon I will rewrite this with the kids help, and there pictures. I purposely never put our kids names in these pages--- to keep it more secure. But if you ever are bored enough to know way more about me than anyone should--or wish to see many more Exploring trips---please check out MY first and longest running blog series at www.wyomingjack.blogspot.com As our budget gets better, the trips on this very page will get better too. At the moment many of them are very local to our new home in beautiful Benson, Arizona.

Notice the smiley face in the sky. ;)

Did you buy tickets to the gun show??

Sadly for me--it is only a cap gun show.

At any rate for this event --you did not have to because most things were Free.

After a long bumpy ride across much of the base I was really wishing we had not brought our low to the ground car. Than through the metal detectors.

Police and security were all around. But we were on an air force base.

The officers and such were very willing to talk to anyone even if you were not wearing a sun dress.

Is this a photo bomb?

I will leave the jokes about dropping the bomb in this case to you.

To serve and protect?

The air show started off with the flag slowly dropping to Earth

as a jet circled it and the pilot sang the national anthem.

I give this performance and the entire air show a 9 ranking out of 10!

My jokes --usually do this....I apologize if I snapped you in any of these shots. But with 250,000 visitors expected over the two day event, snapping any pictures with out people in the back ground was nearly imposable. Especially as the day grew warmer, and any spot of shade-even if it was connected to an airplane, was filled with people.

Several water refill stations lined the air field.

A drone. I was also informed how bad idea it really would be to use one of these for target practice--no matter how tempting it may be. I have since gotten reports from fellow hikers in other states, seeing these fly around them "observing." Kind of creepy-for sure.

Speaking of target practice.

Do not give our youngest a gun, look at the look on his face.

Mission control and the kids confirm --the show was a huge success!

Even some past classics to enjoy.

Of course the real show was up in the air.

We opted to leave the heat and check out a local park before the main stars of the show took to the air. The Thunder Birds. Luckily they perform in the air, so we got to see much of the show while sitting in the park and eating lunch.

We used our GPS to find a park, so it took several attempts to find a park with actual shade and fun things to do.

This great mural was at the edge of this park. I believe it was called Swan Park.